Raided center suffers from “slow justice”
LINGAYEN– It has been more than a month since the Department of Justice (DOJ) dismissed the anti-trafficking in persons case filed against Kamehachi Corporation, an online English tutorial center here, for “insufficient evidence.”
However, Branch 57 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in San Carlos City, still, has not ruled on Kamamechi s motion to quash the charge.
The motion was filed by the owners of the online tutorial center to enable the latter to compel the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG)- National Capital Region (CIDG-NCR) to return the equipment and files seized during the raid.
According to Erlinda Tandoc, the president of the Kamehachi Corp., as of July 21, 2014, RTC-San Carlos City’s Judge Renato Pinlac of Branch 57 still has not ruled on their motion in spite of an understanding that the resolution would be issued within days since their July 10 hearing.
Tandoc lamented that without the court’s resolution, their center cannot fully resume its operations.
At least 99 computer units, more than P700,000 cash, two vans, among others were removed from their premises during the CIDG raid of the two-storey tutorial center on March 17, 2014.
However, Tandoc also expressed worry that some of their seized properties may not be returned since the CIDG raiding team did not make her or anyone sign an acknowledgment of the list of equipment taken from the center.
The center has managed to operate partially only because the teachers use their personal laptops for the lessons.
The case has affected over a hundred online English-as-second-language (ESL) teachers catering to about 800 Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Russian young and adult students.
“We are praying for this issue to come to an end so we can resume working and help our fellow teachers,” said Tandoc. (Johanne R. Macob)
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